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Audio From Amtrak Train Derailment Released

Radio transmissions between the conductor of the derailed Amtrak train and dispatchers was released Monday. In a transmission immediately after the accident, the conductor can be heard saying the train was coming around a corner and was crossing a bridge that passed over Interstate 5 when it derailed.

(Published Monday, Dec. 18, 2017)

A computer-based system designed to prevent train accidents has been stalled by high costs and technological hurdles, NBC News reported. It was not being used by the train that derailed Monday in Washington state, killing at least three people.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the Amtrak train was going 80 miles an hour in a section of track designed for 30-mile-an-hour speeds, multiple sources said. So-called Positive Train Control (PTC) systems are designed, among other things, to prevent trains from speeding.

It was a head-on crash between a passenger and freight train in Los Angeles in 2008 that moved Congress to mandate PTC systems on all major rail lines. The changes were supposed to be completed by the end of 2015.

But implementation was postponed because of the the huge price tag — up to $22.5 billion over 20 years — and because of the innumerable complications in coordinating technology between multiple freight and passenger carriers and in mapping millions of data points --including switches and signals.

Crews Begin Recovery After Amtrak Derailment

Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Detective Ed Troyer says there are no rescue operations now, only recovery at the site of the Amtrak derailment in Washington State.